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The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a murder conviction connected to the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City.
"This case concerns a tragic event that once captured the Nation’s attention. On May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz left his family’s apartment in lower Manhattan to take a bus to school. Before boarding the bus, he stopped to buy a drink at a bodega where respondent Pedro Hernandez, then 18 years old, was working. Patz never got on the bus and was never seen alive again," the Supreme Court noted.
Hernandez's first trial resulted in a hung jury, the Supreme Court recalled, but he was later convicted in 2017 following a second trial and sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.
Today the Supreme Court slapped down the move made by a federal appeals court last year to overturn Hernandez's conviction.
"The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief under §2254(d)," the Supreme Court declared, reversing the Second Circuit's ruling.
Pedro Hernandez was convicted in 2017 of murdering Etan Patz, though a federal appeals court overturned the conviction in 2025, citing a judge's incorrect instructions to jury members. (AP)
Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson opposed the move, as the Court's order noted that they would not have even heard the challenge of the Second Circuit's decision.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement, "Today the Supreme Court agreed with the findings of multiple lower courts and upheld the trial conviction of Pedro Hernandez for the horrific murder of Etan Patz, which changed a generation of New Yorkers."
"This office has remained steadfast in its pursuit of justice for Etan and the Patz family and will continue to stand by this important conviction. I thank the prosecutors in my office, especially our Appellate attorneys, for their dedication and perseverance," he added.
PENN STATION STABBING VICTIM SLAMS MAMDANI, DA BRAGG FOR SUSPECT BEING FREE ON STREETS
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan district attorney, during the National Action Network (NAN) 35th Anniversary Convention in New York, on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hernandez's lawyers indicated they were "terribly disappointed" in the decision.
"We firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit," attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier asserted.
The man's lawyers suggest that Hernandez falsely confessed due to mental illness that sometimes caused him to hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview.
Hernandez has confessed multiple times.
COPS COULD BE FORCED INTO RACE-BASED GUESSING GAME AFTER SUPREME COURT MOVE, THOMAS JOINS DISSENT
Rain clouds roll over the United States Supreme Court building on June 18, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Detectives took Hernandez the county prosecutor's office and "began questioning him there without first administering a Miranda warning … and Hernandez, a man with a low IQ and a history of mental illness, eventually confessed to strangling Patz and dumping his body in an alley behind the bodega," the Supreme Court noted, reviewing the facts of the case.
"The detectives then read Hernandez his Miranda rights. He waived them and made a second, videotaped confession. While still at the CCPO, Hernandez also confessed to his wife, Rosemary, and his daughter, Becky. Detectives drove Hernandez to the New York County District Attorney’s Office, where he received another Miranda warning, waived his rights, and gave a second videotaped confession, this time to an assistant district attorney. Hernandez continued for years to confess to Patz’s murder," the Court
The Associated Press contributed to this report
